The Commerce and Industry Correspondents Association of Nigeria ( CICAN) has disclosed that the recent Premium Motor Spirit ( PMS) hike will increase the cost of living of consumers and reduce their purchasing power while manufacturers and service providers will be forced to increase their price due to hike in transportation and cost of production.

The association therefore urged the federal government to engage with Organised Private Sector(OPS), Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), and other stakeholders to find lastly solution to it. It also called for the involvement of the OPS in taking decisions on palliative measures.

The association disclosed this in a statement signed by its National Chairman, Charles Okonji and the Secretary, Mrs Lucy Ekpeyong and made available to Brand Times.

According to the statement, the fuel hike has made it practically impossible for most Nigerians to transport to their place of work or where they eke out their daily livelihood.

It stated that the cost of transportation has gone up and further jerked up the prices of goods and services, making it very difficult for many citizens to feed twice a day.

“The recent PMS hikes as a result of subsidy removal has pushed up the prices of goods and services beyond the reach of ordinary people.

“Most of our people are unable to get to their places of work to carryout their daily business. This will further drive majority of people into deeper poverty.

“We hereby on behalf of the Nigerian masses, plead with the Federal Government to quickly rollout the palliative it has in the pipeline to ameliorate the serious pains and hardship our people have been subjected to since May 30th, 2023,” the CICAN statement postulated.

CICAN also noted that while the association is delighted about the promise by the federal government to increase salaries of workers, adding that the government should realised that more than 70 percent of youths are unemployed or do not work for the federal, state government or the local government.

“CICAN is aware of the promise of the federal government that it would soon announce salary increase to ammeloriate the hardship caused by the PMS subsidy removal.

“We want to remind the government that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reports have stated that over 50 percent of our youths are unemployed.

“We therefore make bold to say that most of our people who work in the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and many private establishments including many media houses that have not been able to pay the peanuts for months will not consider the idea of salaries increase for their workers” the statement noted.

CICAN postulated that once the government announced of the impending salary increase, landlords, transporters and traders will also further increase the prices of their products or services, thereby making the impending salary increment useless.